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‘Everybody loved her’: Former Duquesne advisor remembers Madeline Spatafore as smart and kind

Those who knew and loved Madeline Spatafore continue to grieve after police say she was shot and killed in her Seven Fields home by her husband early Tuesday morning.

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“Everybody loved her; everybody loved being around her because she brought so much,” Philip Clarke said.

Clarke worked at Duquesne University for 16 years and was an advisor for Delta Zeta when Spatafore was going through the recruitment process and ultimately joined the sorority.

Spatafore graduated from Duquesne University in 2023.

“There’s a lot of Maddys at Duquesne, no question about that. But, just, with her, I mean, it just, you don’t have words, to be honest with you, you really don’t,” Clarke told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek.

Clarke said Spatafore was incredibly friendly, was super involved in different organizations on campus, including an honors fraternity, the honors college and was in the physician assistant program.

As Channel 11 reported Tuesday — according to her LinkedIn page — Spatafore was a Neurovascular Critical Care Physician Assistant at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital.

“She had a great personality; she was obviously very smart, very intelligent, very goal-oriented, very driven, and you see how successful she became after she graduated from Duquesne University from the PA program,” Clarke said. “Being employed at UPMC, they don’t just hand those jobs to anybody, you know? And she deserved everything that she earned. It’s unspeakable. It really is.”

Clarke tells Channel 11 he was shocked when he learned Spatafore’s husband, Ryan Hosso — a high school sweetheart Spatafore married less than two years ago — shot and killed her in their Seven Fields home.

“I have a son her age. I cannot imagine losing a child no matter the age. But especially the age of 25, when at that age, that’s when a person really starts to grow and develop a couple years out of college, getting their feet wet in their career path, and just seeing what a great future she would have had, I just really feel for her family,” he said. “My heart goes out to all of them. It’s just really, really, really sad.”

Clarke has spoken with some of Spatafore’s Delta Zeta sorority sisters and wanted to share these words.

“Remember all the great moments. Cherish all the time spent with her, and always keep her in your thoughts, in your hearts, in your prayers,” He said. “She will have a legacy, without question, within Delta Zeta, within the PA program at Duquesne University, and I know, the girls I know from the sorority at that time period, those things will happen. They will always keep her in their memory.”

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